Of south abington



J. C. RHODES.

Nail Pia te Holder.

Patented Nov. 19,1861

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J. G. RHODES, OF SOUTH ABINGHIOrT, MASSACHUSETTS. Letters Patent No. 71,064, dated November 19, 1867.

IMPROVED NAIL-PLATE HOLDER.

TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

, Be it known that I, J. C. RHODES, of South Abington, in the county of Plymouth, in the State of Massachusetts, have invented an improved Holder of Plates to be used in Nail or Tack Machines; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention, sulficient to enable those skilled in the art to practise it.

In cutting nails and tacks by the common nail machines, the plates from which the nails are out are, for reasons well known to those skilled in the art, comparatively short; hence, to produce a given quantity of cut nails or tacks, a larger number of nail or tack-plates has to be used than would be the case if the plates were longer. A portion of the end of each plate, which is held in nippers or pincers, while the plate is subjected to the cutting action of the machine, and cannot be cut into nails or tacks, as the mechanism for that purpose is now organized, is worthless, except as scrap metal, to be re-wrought,-and it is the object of my invention to reduce the length of each of these ends to a minimum. The old or common method now practised is to hold each plate at its end, by employing a pair of pincers so made and operated as to grasp the sides of the plate,

which is passed through a slot or mortise in a nose-piece, so called, through which piece the impulse is communicated which turns the plate after each out. In

Figure 1 may be seen aview of the pincers just referred to, the nosepiece being shown in section.

In this figure the pincer ends are marked a, the nose-piece b, and the end of the nail plate, held in the pincers and passing through the nose-piece, is markedc.

Now my invention, by which I reduce the length of the waste pieces, consists in so making the, holder of the plates, that they are grasped and held thereby by their edges, instead of by their sides, in connection with such a formation of said holder and ainose-piece as will permit'the former to enter the latter more or less, even to the outer edge of the nose-piece, if desired, so that the length of the waste piece, contained formerly in the nose-piece, and measured by its width, may now, by the use of my invention, be lessened, and cut up into nails or tacks.

Figures 2 and 3 illustrate an embodiment 'of my invention, fig. 2 being a sectional elevation, showing the holder in edge view, and the nose-piecejin' elevation beyond the section, which is taken in the plane of the line at a in fig. 3, which is a plan of both holder and nose-piece combined.

Figure 4is an end view of my holder, as seen separated from the nose-piece, and containing the waste end of a plate. i

As to the holder, little if any description is needed in addition to the drawings. It is marked a, and is a simple bifurcated piece of metal, the prongs of which are capable of being sprung apart to receive the plates, and to deliver the waste ends. The extreme ends of these prongs are thinned down so as to-be capable of entering the mortise in the nose-piece, which is marked e, there being shoulders left on the holder, which, by contact with the inner edges of the nose-piece, prevent the end of the holder from being protruded so far through the nose-piece as to be subjected to the action of the cutters of the machine. The end of my improved holder I is made as thinas possible, so that the mortise in the nose-piece may operate efiiciently on the plate in turning it, before the end of the holder enters the mortise. Each prong of the holder, while made thin for the purpose described, is, for the purpose of strength, made of considerable width.

7 In the old arrangement of plate-holder and nose-piece, the mortise in the nose-piece was made to nearly fit the thickness of the plate, but in my arrangement, the width of the mortise is made to fit the thickness of the ends of the prongs of the holder, beyond their abutting shoulders. I

I claim for employment in a nail or tack machine, the combination of plate-holder and nose-piece, when constructed and arranged to operate substantially as described.

J. G. RHODES.

Witnesses:

J. B. Cnosnr, Framers Gownn. 

